1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the manufacture and securing of building members to a supporting structure. Members of the type upon which this invention has improved are fibrous, decorative panels mechanically punctured to provide a plurality of recesses or fissures extending inwardly from the exposed faces and part way through the panels to enhance the appearance of the exterior structure. Although the invention will be specifically described in connection with perforated panels comprising wood or mineral wool fibers, it may also be employed with other panels or members of vegetable, mineral, or synthetic fibers.
2. Description of the Prior Art
One of the major problems encountered in the manufacture of prefabricated structures is the difficulty of rapidly securing fibrous panels to joists, bridgings, and other supporting members. Decorative panels provided with a plurality of recesses or fissures, though frequently employed in the construction of prefabricated structures such as mobile homes and the like, have been found to be in need of improvement in this regard because the standard size sheets in which they are economically produced must be stocked in large quantities and size assortments, and applied in a customized manner in order to accommodate the wide variety of joist spacings required by different building codes, ceiling fixture placements, and humidity variations between bedrooms and baths or kitchens, for example. Appearance and durability can be sacrificed and considerable costs incurred when installing such panels on the flanges of exposed metal grid suspension systems, ofttimes requiring an elaborate arrangement of main carriers, interlocking cross-tees, thin, resilient, closed cell gaskets and hold-down clips, or in securing the panels to a supporting structure by cementing or by mechanical fasteners such as nails or screws. A tendency of cementitious material to "relax" its grip has frequently caused cemented ceiling panels to become loosened and drop out of alignment or fall completely from the ceiling. Unattractive "break-ups" in the pattern of a decorative panel are created by nails, screws or surface mounted rosettes which are visually apparent and not concealed within the textural surface of the panel. The difficulty of driving or screwing mechanical fasteners into holding contact with the bottom of fissures adjacent the corners of ceiling panels at economical speeds and without damaging their relatively soft and readily destructible ornamental textured surface will be immediately apparent. Appropriate precautions are currently required to prevent creation of panel surface blemishes during production of prefabricated building modules within environments conducive to smudging or contamination. Such building considerations have at times resulted in lower production rates than it was considered desirable to attain for commercial operations.
The design of ceiling tiles textured as above should be compatible with consumer preferences which have tended to reject monotonous, flat, painted ceiling panels in favor of monolithic fissure-textured surfaces unbroken by the flanges of exposed metal grids or surface mounted fastening devices. While office buildings and public facilities frequently contain ceiling tiles with darkened profiles revealed by sharp lines of cleavage of the side walls of fissures produced therein by fluid or mechanically operated punch-type means, the achievement of an aesthetic effect restfully pleasing to the eye often requires that fissured textures for interior home use be somewhat softer in appearance. It would additionally be desirable if the aesthetic effect produced by the fissuring arrangement permitted more rapid installation rates with minimum risk of injury to the panels. A discontinuous panel surface in which fissures formed by routing, etching, dye-stamping, lug punching, or the like, are sufficiently shaped to be compatible with the above noted contemporary aesthetic and economic requirements, though long sought has ere now not been discovered.
The instant invention has for its principal object the provision of an improved pre-finished panel wherein a decorative surface textured by indentations not only results in an aesthetic effect restfully pleasing to the eye, but eliminates the appearance of unattractive surface mounted fasteners, cracks, and nail pops. In addition, an object of the invention is to provide a method for mechanically fastening such a panel to a supporting structure in far shorter time, with greater ease, and at less expense than previously possible, to effect a plurality of omnidirectional indentations among which similar indentations are randomly produced when securing the panel to a supporting structure.
A further object of the present invention resides in a method for disrupting the surface of a fibrous board coated with mineral or synthetic granules by placing irregularly shaped elongated openings therein which resemble additional openings produced on the surface when securing the panel to a supporting structure.
A still further object of this invention is to furnish a scuff and impact withstanding panel of improved flame spread resistance which has a rough textural surface capable of rendering unobvious an additional surface roughening produced when securing the panel to a supporting structure.
Still another object of the invention is to devise a method whereby portions of material at the bottom of low areas produced in the panel surface as the result of securing the panel to a structural member have a color sufficiently similar to material located on the higher areas of the panel surface, that the panel appears to be relatively less textured when viewed from an angle at a distance.